


Pieces of a Spark

by Skylarium_Rose



Series: Cops & Mobs! Stories Serialized [1]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Animated (2007), Transformers: Prime
Genre: Alternate Universe - 1920s, Alternate Universe - Burlesque Club, Alternate Universe - Mob, Jewelry, M/M, Poetry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:42:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23743252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skylarium_Rose/pseuds/Skylarium_Rose
Summary: In this job, there's no time for love. But sometimes it shimmies its way in anyway.The only thing you can do is hope that it can outlast and outmaneuvers the dangers of the seedy underworld you're both trapped in.Just hope and pray.
Relationships: Megatron/Optimus Prime, Past Knockout/Breakdown
Series: Cops & Mobs! Stories Serialized [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1717396
Comments: 6
Kudos: 63





	Pieces of a Spark

**Author's Note:**

> This is a oneshot based off Pastelpaperplanes wonderful au, [Cops and Mobs](https://pastelpaperplanes.tumblr.com/tagged/cops-and-mobs-au)! Its wonderful and it should definitely be checked out. This was something that came about looking at some 1920's scenes on Pinterest.  
> Please Enjoy!

The crystals were deadly expensive. Knockout knew that from experience.

Looking to the pearls around his neck, he knew these and the blue opal beads could only be made in an area abundant in water. And in a wholly industrialize city-state these were basically priceless here, the price going even higher with them being placed along white gold chains. But it wasn’t the finial link cuffs that had Knockout feeling enraged and faint at the same time.

It was the note left with the box.

From the very instant that I saw you, did my heart fly.

Your presence has so strangely taken up my thoughts,

Yet you fly beyond mere words’ control.

The brightness of your optics put the stars to shame,

The eloquence of grace that sits in fullness in your smile,

The embodiment of Hadeen, all these I truly adore.

You are a subject so fit for sonnets and songs, yet I am the only one fortunate to be acquainted with such an ethereal being.

You sway me in all ways and as most fearful that aspect, I am still yours.

Such saccharin words from the slagmaker himself has Knockout wanting to dig his fingers through the flimsy, but expensive stationary.

But it wouldn’t get rid of Orion’s heart optics for Megatron.

Sitting the note down, Knockout rubs at his optics as he remembers the little gestures between them. He had seen them intermittently between working the floor and being on stage, how shy and flustered Orion would be, but still be willing, wanting, to be around Megatron. Swept in by the chivalrous appearance and smooth voice Orion was like putty in his hands and didn’t seem to understand that words were just that, words. And from the boss they were already broken promises, empty as the streets at the twilight hours.

Knockout had warned Orion over and over and yet it was like he was hooked before he even walked through the door. All determined and cautious and kind in one…

He was so much like Breakdown.

Knockout could see it in his demeanor, how he would offer to extra shifts if someone couldn’t or alerting security if he saw someone was getting a bit too handsy. But when Orion was around Megatron he lost the coy appearance that Knockout had taught him and was instantly in a tizzy, flushing at every sly smirk the taller man showered him with. In those times Knockout would be vividly knees deep in memories of his kind construction worker and he wished they were the happier ones instead of the bad.

But it was always the bad ones.

_“Hello, is this Knockout? My designation is Red Alert and I’m calling you from the Iacon City-State Morgue.”_

_………_

_“…Yes… Yes, that’s… That’s Breakdown.”_

_“Okay. If you could please sign here I’ll get you his personal affects for you.”_

_………_

_There were only three items._

_The first was his key ring with only the key to his silly blue truck that he loved and was always working on, the other a key to their apartment. Second, was his wallet. Somehow all the pictures he kept in it had only minor water damage and now sat on the window sill drying under the light of a lamp. Third and final was his ring._

_Sliding Breakdown’s ring over his right thumb it sits so close, so innocently, next to the one on Knockout’s middle finger. A reminder of what could have been but will never be and a fresh set of tears fall, but this time he doesn’t stop them._

“Knockout have you see my black heels? I — ”

Looking up to Orion he can’t keep the faint appreciative smile off his face.

While dressed in his usual ensemble he had change a great many things. The suit was white with loops of satin over his shoulders and a diaphanous train of fabric as long as he was tall trailing behind him. Orion really did look beautiful, sensual, but also too sweet and naive to be wrapped up in this game.

Just like Breakdown.

He just wanted a good life and Knockout felt like they found each other at the best and worst time, all rolled into one.

Looking away, Orion rubs at the back of his helm nervously, “I didn’t mean for –”

“Does he treat you right?” Knockout cuts him off softly.

Orion pauses and looks down at the dazzlingly cuffs, “… He tries.” He says quietly.

“And do you realize what you got into?”

“I think so. I mean its complicated, but it isn’t… It’s hard to explain.” Orion finishes lamely.

And Knockout can see it, can tell, he wants something more. But it shouldn’t be from Megatron. He had seen a few of the castoffs from Megatron’s game, now jaded by the crushing realization that they were just a play thing.

Shaking his helm at this ridiculous lovestruck man Knockout can also see he had lost, but he wouldn’t lose someone else. Closing the distance, he reaches out and brings Orion in for a hug.

“…If anything happens I’m here.”

Returning the hug tightly, Orion smiles, “Thank you, Knockout.”

“Now enough of this sentimentality,” Gently pushing his protégé away and running his hands down his sequined dress, “I don’t need to crease my outfit and you really can’t. You’re on first tonight.” Knockout reminds him with a smirk.

“Right!” Orion jolts and then his optics start darting around their shared dressing room, “Shoes!”

After a short panicked search for his shoes, which were sitting under the vanity with his other shoes, Orion slowly walks over to the ottoman where the open box with his gift was. Gently picking it up Orion hooks the cuffs around his left fin and then reaches around the back of his helm to hang the other with just as much care around his right. The four chains, varied in length, drape tenderly along the base of his bare neck and back, catching the lights and sparkling even more. Slipping his shoes on, Orion has his regular transition period where he wavers, unstable, before he gets his stage legs underneath him and then he’s moving like a swan on water.

Just like always he sang his little heart out and astonished the crowds. And just like always Megatron was watching on from the comfort of his private booth. But this time when Orion was done with his set Megatron didn’t hesitate to walk up and help him down from the side of the stage and walks him back to his booth.

Shaking his helm sadly Knockout looks away from the sight and just prays to Primus that Orion stayed safe.

Though the God hadn’t been there for Knockout when he needed him most, so why even bother.


End file.
